January 6 Hearings (Still Photo Courtesy of PBS)

The Associated Press reports the House panel investigating the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump Thursday night, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an “attempted coup” and a direct result of the defeated president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

With a never-before-seen 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and startling testimony from Trump’s most inner circle, the January 6th committee provided gripping detail in contending that Trump’s repeated lies about election fraud and his public effort to stop Joe Biden’s victory led to the attack and imperiled American democracy

The hearings may not change Americans’ views on the Capitol attack, but the panel’s investigation is intended to stand as its public record. Ahead of this fall’s midterm elections, and with Trump considering another White House run, the committee’s final report aims to account for the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814, and to ensure such an attack never happens again.

Testimony showed Thursday how Trump desperately clung to his own false claims of election fraud, beckoning supporters to the Capitol on January 6 when Congress would certify the results, despite those around him insisting Biden had won the election.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr in videotaped testimony said: “I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen..”

In another videotaped interview, the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified to the committee that she respected Barr’s view that there was no election fraud.

Others showed leaders of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys preparing to storm the Capitol to stand up for Trump. One rioter after another told the committee they came to the Capitol because Trump asked them to.

“President Trump summoned a violent mob,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel’s vice chair who took the lead for much of the hearing. “When a president fails to take the steps necessary to preserve our union — or worse, causes a constitutional crisis — we’re in a moment of maximum danger for our republic.”

There was an audible gasp in the hearing room when Cheney read an account that said when Trump was told the Capitol mob was chanting for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged for refusing to block the election results. Trump responded that maybe they were right, that he “deserves it.”

At another point it was disclosed that Republican Representative Scott Perry, a leader of efforts to object to the election results, had sought a pardon from Trump, which would protect him from prosecution.

When asked about the White House lawyers threatening to resign over what was happening in the administration, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner scoffed they were “whining.”

Police officers who had fought off the mob consoled one another as they sat in the committee room reliving the violence they faced on January 6.

The riot left more than 100 police officers injured, many beaten and bloodied, as the crowd of pro-Trump rioters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged into the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during and after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police.

Biden, in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas, said many viewers were “going to be seeing for the first time a lot of the detail that occurred.”

Trump, unapologetic, dismissed the investigation anew — and even declared on social media that January 6 “represented the greatest movement in the history of our country.”

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee tweeted: “All. Old. News.”

Emotions are still raw at the Capitol, and security was tight. Law enforcement officials are reporting a spike in violent threats against members of Congress.

Against this backdrop, the committee was speaking to a divided America. Most TV networks carried the hearing live, but Fox News Channel did not.

Among those testifying was documentary maker Nick Quested, who filmed the Proud Boys storming the Capitol — along with a pivotal meeting between the group’s then-chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, the night before in a nearby parking garage.

Court documents show that members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were discussing as early as November a need to fight to keep Trump in office. Leaders of both groups and some members have since been indicted on rare sedition charges over the military-style attack.

In the weeks ahead, the panel is expected to detail Trump’s public campaign to “Stop the Steal” and the private pressure he put on the Justice Department to reverse his election loss — despite dozens of failed court cases attesting there was no fraud on a scale that could have tipped the results in his favor.

The panel faced obstacles from its start. Republicans blocked the formation of an independent body that could have investigated the January 6 assault the way the 9/11 Commission probed the 2001 terror attack.

Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ushered the creation of the 1/6 panel through Congress and rejected Republican-appointed lawmakers who had voted on January 6 against certifying the election results, eventually naming seven Democrats and two Republicans.

The Justice Department has arrested and charged more than 800 people for the violence that day, the biggest dragnet in its history.

Governor Kathy Hochul gives COVID-19 report in Syracuse (April 20, 2022)

NPR reports the U.S. Justice Department is appealing the ruling by a federal judge that voided the mask mandate for public transportation.

DOJ spokesperson Anthony Coley said a notice of appeal had been filed in light of the determination by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that wearing a mask “remains necessary to protect the public health.”

The CDC said it had asked the DOJ to appeal. The public health agency continues to recommend that people wear masks in all indoor public transportation settings and says “wearing masks is most beneficial in crowded or poorly ventilated locations, such as the transportation corridor.”

The Biden administration had previously insinuated that it might appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle after checking with the CDC.

The department’s decision to appeal comes just two days after Mizelle ruled that the CDC had exceeded its authority and had failed to follow proper rule-making procedures.

After the judge’s ruling on Monday, many airlines ditched their requirements for passengers to wear masks while traveling.

New York state will still require masks on public transportation despite the ruling by Mizelle.

Governor Kathy Hochul made that announcement in a press conference in Syracuse, saying that because of omicron subvariants and rising cases in the state, it is necessary to maintain a mask mandate for buses and bus stations, trains and train stations, subways and subway stations and airports.

Masks will also be required in the following locations:
– State-regulated health care settings
– State-regulated adult care facilities and nursing homes
– Correctional facilities
– Homeless shelters
– Domestic violence shelters

According to Hochul, cases of COVID-19 are on the rise with an average of 40 cases per 100,000 people. She says there are around 1,400 people currently hospitalized with the virus across the state.
Despite the increase, the governor says the current cases are nowhere near where they were in January and she does not expect the current spike to reach that level.

In Chautauqua County, the County Health Department‘s weekly report for April 20 shows one person hospitalized and an increase in the 7-day average positivity rate to 3.8% from last week’s rate of 1.2%.

Wastewater monitoring levels in Jamestown and Dunkirk both remain unchanged from the previous week and reflect low levels of COVID-19.

Daniel Scavino, Peter Navarro

NPR reports the U.S. House voted Wednesday to hold former Trump White House aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in criminal contempt of Congress after they defied subpoenas from the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The move comes after the Democratic-led panel last month approved a contempt report against Navarro, the former trade adviser, and Scavino, a former deputy chief of staff.

The 220-203 floor vote, cast largely along party lines, triggers a series of steps to send the criminal referrals to the U.S. attorney’s office, leaving the Justice Department to decide whether it will pursue prosecution.

Congressman Tom Reed said in a weekly media call prior to the vote that he would not be supporting the vote. He said he voted for a bipartisan committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol and that’s not what was approved, “And once Speaker Pelosi elected not to recognize the Republican members that were elected to represent us on that committee, they went down this partisan path of the January 6 committee today. And as I look at this, that has contaminated this entire process and therefore I will not be supporting this sanction today.”

Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the only two Republicans appointed to serve on the select committee, were the only two from their party to vote for the referral.
Wednesday’s floor vote marks the third for a criminal contempt referral effort tied to the January 6 committee’s work. Previously, the House has approved criminal referrals for ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

So far, the Justice Department has only pursued prosecution for one of those cases, Bannon, who is now battling related criminal charges.

In each case, a subpoenaed witness could face up a year in jail for each contempt charge, plus fines of up to $1,000 each.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his presentation of the State Budget on Jan. 19, 2021 (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)

ALBANY – Governor Andrew Cuomo acknowledged on Monday that his office should not have withheld data on COVID-19 nursing home deaths from state lawmakers, the public and press – but fell short of apologizing to state residents.

Cuomo said at a press conference that “lessons were learned’ in not releasing the data and that things “should have been done differently.”

“The last thing I wanted to do was aggravate a terrible situation,” said Cuomo, a third-term Democrat. “There were people’s requests, press requests that were not answered in a timely manner.”

More than 15,000 people have died in New York state’s nursing homes and long term care facilities from COVID-19, but as recently as last month, the state reported only 8,500 deaths.

Requests from state lawmakers and the U.S. Department of Justice were made in August for full accounting, along with numerous requests from the media, Cuomo acknowledged. But Cuomo said the state prioritized answering the Justice Department first, and other requests went unanswered.

Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa told Democratic leaders in a private phone conversation last Thursday that the administration withheld information out of fear the U.S. Justice Department would use the information against it. She also reportedly apologized to those lawmakers for not disclosing the actual nursing home death-count earlier in the pandemic.

When details of that conversation went public, many on both sides of the political aisle perceived it as a cover-up and lawmakers said they are reconsidering their decision to grant Cuomo emergency powers to contend with the novel coronavirus pandemic.

As part of the fallout, Local State Sen. George Borrello (R-Irving) called on the Department of Justice and the New York Attorney General’s Office to investigate Cuomo’s administration.

“This news is heartbreaking but, sadly, not unexpected,” Borrello said in a media release. “After months of stonewalling and blaming everyone else  for these deaths,  we now know it’s been a cover up all along. This admission by DeRosa points to potential obstruction of justice, at the very least. The families of the thousands of people who lost their lives in New York’s nursing homes deserve no less than a complete and transparent investigation into how this happened.”

According to a report Friday in the Jamestown Post-Journal, the two government agencies have filed a legal complaint against David Whitehill and his business Dependable Towing and Recovery. The complaint is for allegedly Whitehill filling wetlands to make a parking lot on his property. The property is located just north of I-86 and to the east of County Route 380.

The most recent complaint stems from a cease and desist order issued in 2009 against Whitehill after inspections found Whitehill had filled in more than 16 acres of forested wetlands with soil and dirt. In March 2010 the EPA ordered to remove the illegal fill. He has yet to comply with that order, resulting in the federal government moving forward on Thursday with taking legal action against him and his business.

Under the filed complaint the federal government is seeking restoration of the wetlands along with the payment of a civil penalty of $37,500 per day for each violation of the Clean Water Act.

According to the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, Whitehill is also liable for a civil penalty for each day of violation of the March 2010 order.

Martha Robertson

DUNKIRK – The Ithaca Democrat running for Congress says the U.S. Justice Department should investigate a national food processing company that is pulling out of Northern Chautauqua County for possible anti-trust violations.

Democratic 23rd Congressional District candidate Martha Robertson announced this week that in the wake of ConAgra Food’s decision to shutter plants in upstate New York, she is asking the Justice Department to review ConAgra Foods’ actions for possible violations of anti-trust laws aimed at ensuring free and fair competition.

ConAgra, a Fortune 500 company with net sales totaling approximately $18 billion, purchased Carriage House from Ralcorp in November 2012. Carriage House, formerly Red Wing, has been a Fredonia corporate food processor for generations. The closing announcement from ConAgra means that some 425 workers will be losing their jobs beginning in September and ending in February 2015.

According to Robertson, the actions by ConAgra should be reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department to ensure that laws governing the free market were not violated.

She also said that protecting and creating jobs are the single most important issues facing the people of the 23rd District, and regrettably her opponent, Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning), is apologizing for the excuses made by ConAgra rather than fighting to ensure the company doesn’t sneak away in the middle of the night. Upon learning that ConAgra was leaving New York, Reed said it was New York State’s poor business climate that was to blame for the company pulling out.